William Z. Foster

William Z. Foster (25 February 1881-1 September 1961) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party USA from 1945 to 1957, succeeding Earl Browder and preceding Eugene Dennis.

Biography
William Foster was born on 25 February 1881 in Taunton, Massachusetts to a family of Irish-Americans; his father was a member of the Fenian Brotherhood of Ireland that launched a failed 1867 uprising against the United Kingdom that led to his emigration. Foster worked several working-class jobs such as a fertilizer factory laborer, sailor, and construction worker, and in 1901 he joined the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1909. He worked to organize packinghouse workers into unions to stand up for their rights as workers, and in 1919 he took part in organizing the strike of the steel workers, with 250,000 people taking part in the strike. However, the defeat of the strike led to Foster joining the new Communist Party USA after its split from the Socialist Party, and in 1945 he became its General Secretary. The party was never important in terms of elections, but they were known for their support of communism in Europe, including the defeat of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution as well as the denunciation of Joseph Stalin by Nikita Khrushchev. The onset of the Cold War led to the persecution of communists, and he left office in 1957, dying in 1961.